New mITX build advice please

Long time reader and first time poster.
Let me preface this with my experience.
I've only done one build (ATX) back around 2001 or 2002 with a pentium 4 northwood. My box finally crapped out before I moved to manhattan about 9 months ago. I've been working solely on my mid-2011 Macbook Air and 2013 iMac 27 inch.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to grab an NCASE N1, and I'm a bit disappointed with the aesthetics of every mITX case I've seen, in one way or another. I've pieced together the following build:

1. What will you be doing with this PC?
- casual gaming (mostly Diablo 3, some RTS and FPS)
-photoshop/video/audio editing
- possibly running some statistic heavy programs (Stata) for biostatistical analysis
- I use appleTV for multimedia

2. Will you be overclocking? (If so, are you looking to watercool?)
- yes. AIO cooler (Kraken x40?)

3. What's your budget?
- budget is flexible. Roughly 1200. I realize it will probably be higher because I need to buy an OS and accessories.

4. Where do you live?
-manhattan

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget?
“everything” except a monitor!

- case – fractal node 304 $75
I really prefer aluminum but lian li q25 looked like a pain to modify drive cage. Couldn’t grab an NCASE in time. Looked at Rosewill/Jonsbo but didn’t like the aesthetics of the USB port placement or use of noisy 80 mm case fans

- PSU – seasonic G series SSR-550RM $79 (didn’t want silverstone SFX build because of loud PSU fan)
- motherboard – ASUS maximus impact $219
- CPU – core i5-4670K $229
- cooler – NZXT Kraken X40 $99
- SSD – Samsung 840 Pro 128gb $129
-Memory – Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB(2x4) DDR31866 $89
- graphics – plan to buy geforce 750ti at later point

- SATA 3 cable Silverstone CPO7 $6.99
-BYTECC HDMI to DVI-D $9.99
-keyboard – Logitech K800 $89
- mouse – Logitech MX $79
-MS windows 7 or 8.1????? $130-300 which version do people recommend? Which version do I need, pro, OEM, etc?

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
- monitor – Samsung 19 in DVID input
-plan to buy dual HD monitors at later point

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Thunderbolt? Crossfire or SLI support? How many USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s? etc

8. What resolution output do you need?
- will need dual monitor output within 1-2 months
- 4k not essential now but may be nice in future

9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive?
- don’t need optical
- prefer small size. May build my own custom case (wood/metal hybrid) in the future if I can’t get an N1

10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring?
- no experience with case mods but willing to experiment. Prefer not too if possible.
- have a drill and some basic tools

11. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem?
- want it to look sleek and be quiet. It’s going to sit on a white marble desk in my living room

12. How mobile does this system need to be?
Not at all

13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No MS OS currently. Last windows used was XP.
Windows 7 or 8.1? which version do I need? I would also like to install it on my imac with parallels desktop

14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
-immediately

Please help!

Looks like you've already got it thought out. A few things I might offer:

Check out mechanical keyboards. If you are using the machine on a regular basis, it's a great improvement in ergonomics. If I had to guess I'd say I can type at least 20% faster since changing my home and work machines to Corsair K70 keyboards. I've previously other "gaming" keyboards which were really just membrane keyboards with more buttons and knobs. No comparison to Cherry MX keys though.

For Windows, you can install any version of windows without a license key for a trial period. I think you can usually extend the trial up to 120 days, not sure about Windows 8. Windows 8.1 seems to be decent, the main reason I'm not using it is for business reasons (VPN software not supporting 8 etc.). This way you can try it without any cost out of pocket and change the version if you're not satisfied.

If you're doing gaming, you will probably want to get a video card right away. The built-in video cores on CPUs are not the greatest.

If you're not constantly moving gigantic files, you may be able to get a 250GB Samsung Evo 840 for only about $20 more than what you have listed for the 840 Pro. The main difference is sustained write speed -- the Evo has a 2GB SLC flash write buffer which allows it to write very quickly as long as the buffer doesn't get filled (if it does then it's down to the comparably slow write speed of the main TLC flash bank)

I am probably doing a very similar build in the very near future for a friend. I think he is going to go with the Corsair 250D and H100 or similar 120x240 water cooler. Also consider if your statistical analysis software is memory-intensive it may be worthwhile to put in 16GB to make sure you don't run out of memory. Most ITX boards I've seen have only 2 memory slots so there's no real room for upgrade without getting rid of your existing memory, and using only one channel will greatly reduce your memory bandwidth.

Thanks for the feedback.
Do you think there's any real time noticeable difference between the Samsung EVO and pro without running benchmarks?

I have 2 pros and 6 EVOs. Get the EVOs.

liquidgold said:

Thanks for the feedback.
Do you think there's any real time noticeable difference between the Samsung EVO and pro without running benchmarks?

Click to expand...

I doubt there would be a noticeable difference unless you have at least 2 SSDs and copy very large files from one to the other on a regular basis. I am running 2 Evos in my desktop and one in my laptop and I am very satisfied with the performance. If you're copying from bulk storage (mechanical disk) to SSD the disk probably won't be fast enough to overrun the buffer.

I was curious so I looked up the exact buffer size -- It looks like the buffer is 3GB per 250GB of storage, except for the 120GB which has 3GB. So the 1TB disk will have 12GB of buffer.

The other advantage of the Pro is that it will have longer endurance, but realistically the usable life span of these disks is 5-10 years under heavy write usage and I know I don't keep disks that long before putting them out to pasture or re-purposing them in lower-priority machines. The Samsung utility also makes it easy to see the calculated remaining life of the disk. I have had my 250GB Evo for about 8 months now and I have a total of 1.58TB of write on it -- I think they can handle several hundred TB before they start to lose blocks.

A couple thoughts...

For Windows, if you don't need to put the machine on a domain, then just get Win7 Home Premium or Win8 basic edition in 64-bit. Pro versions add ability to join domains, Bitlocker (drive encryption), host remote desktop, etc. Those are mostly things that businesses need for connectivity and security. If you don't even know what you need, then you probably don't need it. You will be likely getting the OEM version of 7, or the non-upgrade version of 8.

For the SSD I would agree with the others in getting a cheaper, higher capacity unit. Heck, I would go as far as to get something like a Crucial M500 240GB for around $120, which seems to be the going sale price these days. Outside of benchmarking you probably won't notice much performance difference. However, you will notice the extra capacity and lower cost.

IIRC socket 1150 can support up to 3 monitors concurrently. You can also run monitors concurrently on integrated graphics and discrete graphics. Just buy a board with the outputs you need.

Speaking of board, have you considered cheaper ones such as the ASRock Z87E-ITX? It is chock full of features and can overclock really well, plus is a lot cheaper. Was there a particular reason for choosing the board you listed? Also, that board has DVI output so you wouldn't need to waste $10 on an adapter.

Even with overclocking and a GTX 750 Ti, 550W is way overkill. Full load would probably pull under 200W. Feel free to go much, much lower wattage on the PSU.

No need to buy the SATA cable. Motherboards will come with at least two cables capable of SATA 6Gbps.

Are you actually planning to overclock?

Thanks everyone for your input.

Sounds like the EVO SSD is the way to go.
I will be adding more drives to this system later on.

I thought about going lower wattage on the power supply (possibly even the fanless sea sonic platinum 400w) but I wanted some flexibility in the system as I may go with a larger graphics card, more drives, or other components in the future.

Same thing with the motherboard - I wanted something feature rich with durability that I can trust, with a good interface for over clocking also. I'm hoping the sound quality will be good, although I might end up wanting to buy an external DAC (http://www.rotel.com/NA/products/index.htm?cat=157) to integrate with my audio system for hifi playback (currently Rotel preamp and power amp separates, Rega P3 turntable, B&W 603 speakers with Kimber interconnects and speaker wires)

My last gigabyte motherboard on my Northwood build lasted quite a long time before the capacitors died, and I like the build quality of the components on the Impact, in addition to what I've seen in reviews of the UEFI.

For OS, I will need Pro version for remote desktop installed for my wife who telecommutes. She will be using this computer also.

It's been a long time since I last built a PC but I also now that I got way more life and performance out of my old machine by over clocking, and I'd like to do it again with this build.

liquidgold said:

I thought about going lower wattage on the power supply (possibly even the fanless sea sonic platinum 400w) but I wanted some flexibility in the system as I may go with a larger graphics card, more drives, or other components in the future.

Click to expand...

You still don't need that much wattage. I'm using a 450W for my mildly overclocked Core i5 with a GTX 670, two HDDs and three SSDs. Reviewers of the GTX 780 Ti report power usage just under 400W. Note that many review with an overclocked quad core CPU, plus they are measuring from the wall meaning the PSU isn't even required to put out that much.

Now, wanting fanless is a bit different. However, I ask you why you target fanless with the PSU, which is usually a reasonably quiet 120-140mm fan, while you still have a fan cooled graphics card which will almost always be noisier under load. What I'm trying to say is that unless you don't have other fans, the PSU is IMO the last place to go fanless since it adds so little to the noise of the system.

If you still want to go this route and want the extra power, look for hybrid PSUs that stop the fan under low load, low power situations, yet still has a fan to spin up when conditions require a bit more airflow. This way you get the best of being quiet as well as having capacity, plus a safety net.

liquidgold said:

Same thing with the motherboard - I wanted something feature rich with durability that I can trust, with a good interface for over clocking also. I'm hoping the sound quality will be good, although I might end up wanting to buy an external DAC

Click to expand...

Paying more does not guarantee those things. The ASRock board I mentioned will hit all those bullet points with the exception of true durability, because no one knows for absolute certainty that any of these boards/brands will be operational X number of years down the road.

The ASRock board compares favorably against the Asus Z87I-Deluxe board, but I haven't seen a direct comparison versus the Maximus VI Impact. Now, between the Deluxe and Impact, I think feature set is the biggest difference with the SupremeFX sound, NGFF slot and the Impact Control panel. Overclocking seems ballpark among all the top boards. Oftentimes the same reviewer, presumably using the same CPU/cooler/RAM, will get similar results no matter which board is being reviewed except for one or two underperforming ones.

Being that audio is one of your bullet points, if you are seriously thinking of an external DAC (normal behavior for audiophiles who use a PC to listen to lossless sources like FLAC), then that negates one of the reasons for the Impact which is presumably better sound quality due to the SupremeFX daughterboard.

liquidgold said:

For OS, I will need Pro version for remote desktop

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Are there any other parts of Pro which you need? Why I'm asking is because there are a number of alternatives to the remote desktop built into Windows, many of which are easier to use.

With the normal Windows remote desktop, you need to know your external IP address (or use something like DynDNS) and port forward in your router to your PC.

One (of many) alternatives is TeamViewer, which is free for personal use. No need for knowing the IP address or any port forwarding, plus it can also work as a portable app meaning you can have the host running on your PC and your wife can have the client on a USB stick and use it with any Windows PC.

Now, if by "wife who telecommutes" you mean she will use your computer to remote desktop into her computer at work, then you got it all wrong. Pro version allows for INCOMING remote desktop, as in it can be the host. The Home/Basic versions still allow for OUTGOING remote desktop so you can still use it to connect to your work computer.